In Matthew 12 the scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus and tempted him. They asked him to give them a sign to prove that he is the Messiah. Jesus responded by saying the following:

An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. ~ Matthew 12:39-41

The reference to the sign of the prophet Jonas (Jonah) can be found in Matthew 12:38-41, Matthew 16:1-4 and in Luke 11:29-32 and is an…